It's hard for my elder sister. I rely on the mountains to farm and pay off my debts.

"Grandma, look, this is the mosquito repellent sachet that Ah Zhi made for us. Ah Zhi said that if we hang it on the headboard of the bed, mosquitoes will stay away on their own."

Wang took it and looked at the unique little sachet with curiosity. Then she put it to her nose and sniffed it. "What's in here? It smells good to me."

"There are mint and mugwort, both of which are Chinese medicinal herbs."

Hearing this, Doctor Zheng curiously took the small sachet from his granddaughter's hand, put it to his nose and sniffed it, then said with pride, "She's quite a clever girl."

Wang saw that her husband was in a good mood with his raised mouth, so she jokingly said:

"I see that Ah Zhi is even better than her teacher. We've only been learning about herbs together for a short while, yet she can even make this medicine pack herself."

Doctor Zheng was proud of this and straightened his back, saying, "This also proves that I have good taste and have chosen a good apprentice!"

Seeing her husband's happiness, Wang and her granddaughter couldn't help but smile at each other.

As soon as Song Zhi arrived home, Wu came looking for her with a wooden bucket full of beehives.

"I bought you the beehive you wanted. There are fifty pounds in total, and one pound costs only twelve cents! It won't cost that much." After saying that, she handed back the purse that Song Zhi had given her this morning.

"Grandma, please keep this money. I still need these beehives. Please buy me some more later. Buy as many as you can. Don't be stingy with your money."

Song Zhi explained to Wu at the same time, "Grandma, the mugwort soap we make is very popular in the government-run shops, but our county is so small, and there's a fixed quota for lard. If I buy in large quantities, the price of lard will definitely rise rapidly."

"Lard is a necessity in the lives of the people. Although I love money, I don't want the lives of the people to be affected because of my concern."

"So I thought about making some herbal ointments instead. This herbal ointment requires beeswax. Did you know that beeswax is also a medicinal herb? It has the effect of detoxifying and promoting tissue regeneration."

"I'll use this beeswax to make some soothing and anti-itching ointment. This way, I can meet the sales needs of the government-run shops and make money. Isn't that the best of both worlds?"

After hearing her granddaughter's explanation, Mrs. Wu's doubts vanished, and she agreed without hesitation, "Don't worry, leave this matter to me. I'll go back and talk to the beekeeper and let him keep the hive."

After the grandparents and grandchildren agreed, Song Zhi carried the beehive to the studio in the backyard.

At this time in the studio, several young people were continuing the unfinished work in the morning and grinding medicinal materials.

Seeing Song Zhi walk in with a wooden bucket of beehives, Song Kang was the first to trot over to Song Zhi and circled around the bucket curiously, "Sister, what is this?"

"Sister, is this a beehive?" Song Cheng also came over and asked.

Song Zhi nodded, "Yes, I'll use this to make you some herbal ointment to relieve itching!"

"I can help!" Song Cheng raised his hand excitedly.

"And me, and me!" Song Kang followed suit and joined in the fun.

"Okay, then help me get some water in the pottery basin first. I'll show you how to make the herbal ointment in a moment."

When the two children heard this, they immediately took action.

Song Zhi also started to get busy. She filtered out the mugwort mint oil that had been left for the whole morning with gauze.

At this time, Song Cheng also walked into the room carrying a small half basin of water. Song Zhi took two quick steps forward to take it and put it on the table.

Then Song Zhi lit the clay stove and steamed the separated mugwort and mint oil to remove excess water.

The last step is to boil the honeycomb. The soaked honeycomb is placed in a ceramic basin and heated continuously until it completely melts into a pool of golden liquid.

Finally, filter the melted honeycomb liquid with gauze.

The filtered liquid, when cooled and hardened, becomes beeswax.

Generally, the beeswax after the first filtration will have impurities, so it needs to be put into gauze and continued to be boiled in the pot. Finally, after removing the impurities remaining on the gauze, pure beeswax can be obtained.

As for how many beehives can produce one kilogram of beeswax, there is no fixed number. Generally, old beehives contain less beeswax, while new beehives contain more beeswax.

Some honeycombs require seven or eight kilograms to produce one kilogram of beeswax, while others require four or five kilograms of honeycombs to produce one kilogram of beeswax.

But she has 50 kilograms of beeswax here, and conservatively speaking, she can make 6 kilograms of beeswax.

This is enough to make some herbal ointment, after all, the amount of beeswax used is not that large.

After Song Zhi filtered the beeswax for the first time, she set it aside to cool and solidify.

After that, she didn't even bother to rest, but took over the work from Song An and started grinding the medicinal herbs.

Perhaps it was because of the farm work she was used to doing, or perhaps it was genetic, but Song Zhi's strength was much greater than other girls of the same age.

The herbs in the mortar were easily ground into powder in her hands.

It only took Song Zhi half an hour to finish a few small tasks that would have taken her half a day. The three of them squatted beside her, adding some medicinal materials to Song Zhi's stone mortar from time to time. The three siblings cooperated very well.

The few of them stayed in the backyard and were busy until dusk. Only when someone came to call them did Song Zhi stop what she was doing.

She rubbed her sore arms and missed the modern blender very much.

She reminded herself again in her heart that she must buy a stone mill tomorrow, otherwise she would have nothing else to do all day and would just grind medicine here!

Because the wall of the old house next door was being repaired, there were a lot of bricks, stones and gravel in the yard, making it difficult to walk.

Mrs. Wu simply moved the small dining table next door.

The family sat under the eaves, eating dinner and chatting about the progress of the project.

"The construction of the courtyard wall is going quite fast. Do you think it can be completed in two or three days?" Yang asked.

"How can it be that fast? The kang in the house hasn't been built yet. It will take at least ten days to complete."

"I don't know when the county magistrate will come to our village. I'm just worried that he will delay everyone's work."

"Auntie, don't worry. It's just helping someone build a kang. We'll pay them the same way. In fact, it's more convenient for the uncles in the village to do the work at home."

"..."

The family sat together, chatting idly.

After finishing her dinner, Song Zhi didn't rush to make the herbal ointment. Instead, she waited for everyone to finish their meal. Then, she seized the opportunity and said, "Grandma, Uncle, Auntie, let me take your pulses. My master has assigned me a task today: to distinguish various pulse patterns."

When Mrs. Wu heard her granddaughter say this, she happily held out her wrist and said, "Come here, let grandma touch it for you."

Song Zhi gently placed her hand on Grandma's wrist, closed her eyes, and carefully felt the pulse beneath her finger. After a moment, she slowly opened her eyes, and she had already made some judgment in her mind.

The pulse is thin and weak, and the beats are slightly slow, which is obviously caused by long-term malnutrition and deficiency of both qi and blood.

In addition, the occasional feeling of tightness reveals that the person is malnourished on a daily basis, and is often busy with household chores and has many worries in his heart, which causes the body to be in a state of weakness for a long time.

"Grandma, you're actually in pretty good shape, but you've been working too hard these past few years, and you haven't been eating or drinking much, so you've lost some of your energy and blood."

"So, grandma, you should eat and drink from now on, and take good care of your body. We are still young, but we are all counting on you!"

Song Zhi said she was relaxed, but she was not relaxed at all. For someone of such an old age, who had been overworked for a long time and had inadequate nutrition, it was very likely that she would not be able to resist a cold in the future.